Jason's Blog

So I have returned from my weekend journey to Georgia, and it has been an interesting trip, so I’m not really sure where to start.

The Ghetto Bowling AlleyI suppose I’ll start off with the most interesting tidbit of the trip. The ghetto bowling alley. On the night of my arrival, we had decided to go to the local bowling lanes in Toccoa Falls to bowl a few games. Clint had told me before what to expect, but nothing prepares you for the sight (or experience) once you are actually there. These lanes had to be at least 30 years old, and did not work half the time. As is evidence in the photo you see, their “bumpers” were made up of those flexible plastic drainage pipes. Also, none of the pins really matched so you would get the occasional blue, yellow, green, or some other odd colored pin mixed in with your white. The lanes would malfunction frequently (we actually got to bowl 1 1/2 games because they moved us to another lane as ours kept messing up), and the lanes were uneven. Needless to say, it was by far the most interesting bowling lanes I’ve ever been. Although, even with all of that going on I still managed to bowl a 169.

In other news from Toccoa, I’ve posted some photos from Toccoa on my Flickr account of the scenery of Toccoa. You should check it out. Toccoa is kind of rural, but makes for some nice scenery as it’s nestled in the northeast Georgia mountains close to South Carolina.

On the trip there from my Grandparents, I had decided to surprise Rick at work just kind of randomly. He didn’t know I was going to be in Atlanta, so I thought it would be funny to stop in and say hi without him knowing. I had been trying to find out when he was working all week from Jeremy, but finally got his schedule from Sadie. Although, I didn’t hit the right Applebee’s the first time, I got directions and headed to the second one which I knew was his once I saw a green Ford Taurus parked backwards in the parking lot. When I walked in and asked for Rick Watts, and the girl working up front started yelling out, “WATTS!” pretty loudly, since he was in the back. The shock and surprise on his face was pretty priceless though, as he stood there stunned repeating, “What are you doing here!?” several times before I actually got the chance to say anything. After that we just sat down and talked while I ate lunch. I do feel kind of strange however, I’ve never given Rick a tip for his services before…

Although, the most frustrating part of my trip wasn’t until my journey home. Something ripped through my tire about 30 minutes outside of Birmingham and caused me to have a flat tire which took me about 1 1/2 hours to change. It should not had taken that long, but it took a while to get the lug nuts off and then the tire got stuck, which took me the rest of the time to get it off. During that time AAA didn’t show up, but a state trouper did and even he couldn’t get it off. Oh well, at least I’m back in Birmingham now…